How does Stress and Anxiety Affect Your Body?

The physical psychological symptoms of stress are varied. They happen when the stress is positive (marriage/birth) or negative (job loss / death). Your body doesn’t recognize the difference between the two types of stress and you end up with the same physical psychological symptoms of stress.

There are some immediate physical psychological symptoms of stress that are related to the diversion of blood from less vital organs and structures. People may experience cold clammy skin, goose bumps, frequent stools that can be related to Irritable Bowel Syndrome, loss of appetite, dry throat and difficulty speaking. A person can also experience cardiac effects such as palpitations, chest pain or flushing. You may find that your breathing rate increases or you feel breathless and your energy appears to disappear.

Other physical psychological symptoms of stress can include more frequent infections such as a cold or sinus infections. You may have trouble getting over these minor illnesses as well. Stress can also cause a decreased appetite leading to weight loss or an increased appetite leading to weight gain. Some people complain of a loss of sexual drive, sleeplessness or exacerbations of arthritis, lupus, psoriasis and asthma.

These illnesses aren’t caused directly by stress but an increased stress level decreases the ability of the immune system to fight off problems and infections and also decreases the ability of your body to hold the current conditions at bay. You may find you have memory disturbances or even mood swings, anxiety, depression and irritability. People who are suffering from stress will have difficulty focusing on a task and may have problems with outbursts of anger.

While most of these physical psychological symptoms of stress will disappear when the stressor is eliminated if the trigger persists then some of the symptoms can continue as well. Sometimes when people suffer from high levels of stress hormones or increased amount of toxic metabolites they can have a difficult time with handling stress. The long term effects of stress include stroke, weight loss or gain, substance abuse, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, irritable bowel disease, stroke, or ischemic bowel disease like Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis.

Even though the symptoms and outcomes can be devastating there is always a treatment available to people who want to change the way that they cope with stress. Stress won’t disappear in your life, nor should it. We all enjoy the positive stressors in our lives; marriage, new baby, job promotion, new house, or new car to name a few. Without them our lives would be stale and boring — and yet they require that we learn how to effectively deal with the physical psychological symptoms of stress to enable us to fully enjoy the outcomes.

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

Aggie
2. November 2009
Aggie
2. November 2009
this article was not helpful. If anything, it stresses you out more as it tells you all the ailments that you are vulnerable to. Doesn't really tell you how to help deal with the stress.

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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